                           Intrinsics 101
                          ================
                     From the Nethack Grimoires
                 by Steve Derby (sderby@netcom.com).
Quoted and amended for Nethack 3.2.3 by Jonathan Ellis.


This file describes how to get the various intrinsics in Nethack and
why you want (or don't want) them - and also how they can be lost.

Part 1: What intrinsics are there?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The character may gain any or all of the following intrinsics, from 
eating corpses, praying, wearing or wielding certain items (or, in the 
case of certain artifacts, merely carrying them), reaching a certain
level of experience, or being a particular class of character:

fire resistance
cold resistance
shock resistance
poison resistance
disintegration resistance
sleep resistance
magic resistance
reflection
displacement
invisibility
see invisible
searching
speed
stealth
telepathy
ESP
clairvoyance
warning
levitation
jumping
teleport randomly ("teleportitis")
teleport control
polymorph randomly
polymorph control
protection
regeneration
hunger
aggravate monster
cause conflict
lycanthropy

Part 2: Gaining Intrinsics
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Note: Except where noted below, eating corpses has only a chance of
bestowing an intrinsic. This chance varies with the level of the
monster's corpse (Stormbringer does not affect corpse level). Also,
eating rings while polymorphed into a monster that can always has a 1
in 3 chance of conferring the ring's intrinsic, but you may also
consume food faster than usual. Not all rings can be eaten.

Intrinsics can be temporary (they automatically go away after a number
of moves), permanent (they never go away under normal circumstances),
or controlled (you control the intrinsics, usually by wearing or
removing magical items).  The "Message" referred to for each intrinsic
is what Nethack tells you when you've permanently gained the
intrinsic.  The message may differ if you are blind or hallucinating
and not all intrinsics have an associated message.  (Note that when
getting an intrinsic by eating a ring, the message is always "Magic
spreads through your body as you digest the ring.")

Note that polymorphing into various monsters gives you their
intrinsics, but only until you return to human/elven form, so I've
omitted polymorphing as a way of getting intrinsics.

Aggravate Monster
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Message: varies
Effect: Causes all monsters on the level to come at you with a vengence.
  Generally a bad intrinsic to have.
Obtaining:
  - Cannibalism ("You will regret that!"; permanent)
  - Eat a domestic animal: kitten, housecat, large cat, little dog, dog,
    large dog ("You have a feeling eating that <animal> was a bad idea";
    permanent)
  - Quaff a cursed potion of invisiblilty ("You feel your presence is
    known."; temporary)
  - Wear a ring of aggravate monster (controlled; they tend to be cursed)
  - Eat a ring of aggravate monster (permanent)

Cause Conflict
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Message: none
Effect: Causes all monsters (hostile, peaceful, and tame) to attack whoever
  is nearby. Still does not allow you to safely kill peaceful monsters,
  though they will attack you.
Obtaining:
  - Wear a ring of conflict (controlled - increases hunger)
  - Eat a ring of conflict (permanent; increases hunger - probably a bad idea)
  - #Invoke the Sceptre of Might (controlled - does not increase your hunger)

Clairvoyance
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Message: "I bestow on thee a blessing." (when donating)
Effect: The area around you occassionally maps itself. In the endgame,
  proximity to magic portals is sometimes revealed.
Obtaining:
  - Offer money to priests at temples (between 200 and 400 times your level;
    temporary)
  - Carry the Amulet of Yendor (controlled)
  - If you are a wizard, wear a cornuthaum (controlled)

Cold resistance
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Message: "You feel full of hot air."
Effect: Cold attacks (rays, defensive, covering with frost, etc.) do not
  affect you.
Obtaining:
  - Eat "cold" monsters, such as yetis, blue jellies, winter wolves, white
    dragons, etc. (permanent)
  - Wear a ring of cold resistance (controlled)
  - Wear white dragon scale mail (controlled)
  - Eat a ring of cold resistance (permanent)
  - Become the Hand of Elbereth/Envoy of Balance/Glory of Arioch (permanent)
  - Valkyries begin with cold resistance

Disintegration resistance
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Message: "You feel very firm."
Effect: Disintegration blasts from black dragons and angry deities do not
  harm you. Does not protect you from wands of death!
Obtaining:
  - Eat a black dragon (permanent)
  - Wear black dragon scale mail (controlled)

Displacement
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Message: "You are now wearing a cloak of displacement." 
  (if not invisible.)
Effect: If you are invisible, no effect. If you are visible, monsters
  will sometimes attack a spot beside you instead of attacking you.
Obtaining:
  - Wear a cloak of displacement (controlled)

ESP
~~~
Message: none
Effect: All intelligent monsters in the vicinity are revealed, whether
  they can actually be seen or not. Monsters like mimics and hiding
  monsters (e.g. rock piercers and trappers) are also revealed.
  Intelligent monsters do not include jellies, zombies, golems, and the
  like.
Obtaining:
  - Wear an amulet of ESP (including the Eye of Aethiopica; controlled)
  - Wear a helm of telepathy (controled)
  - Carry the Orb of Detection, the Palantir of Westernesse, the Magic
    Mirror of Merlin, or the Platinum Yendorian Express Card (controlled)

Fire resistance
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Message: "You feel a slight chill."
Effect: Heat attacks (rays, defensive, burning, etc.) and fire traps do not
  affect you.
Obtaining:
  - Eat "hot" monsters such as hell hounds, red dragons, fire giants, etc.
    (permanent)
  - Wear a ring of fire resistance (controlled)
  - Eat a ring of fire resistance (permanent)
  - Wear red dragon scale mail (controlled)
  - Become the Hand of Elbereth/Envoy of Balance/Glory of Arioch (permanent)
  - Carry the Mitre of Holiness (controlled)
  - Priests gain fire resistance at level 20

Invisibility
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Message: "You feel hidden."
Effect: You are invisible to other monsters, reducing their attack
  efficiency. Also, you cannot enter shops (at least not by way of the front
  door). So you must find a way to make yourself visible again if you wish
  to go shopping...
Obtaining:
  - Wear a ring of invisibility (controlled)
  - Wear a cloak of invisiblity (controlled)
  - Eat a ring of invisibility (permanent)
  - Eat a stalker corpse while not already invisible (temporary; always
    works)
  - Eat a stalker corpse while already invisible (permanent; always works)
  - Quaff a cursed or uncursed potion of invisibility (temporary; if cursed,
    it also gives you aggravate monster)
  - Quaff a blessed potion of invisibility (temporary or permanent: your
    choice)
  - Zap yourself with a wand of invisibility (permanent)
  - Quaff from a sink (temporary; infintesmally small chance)
  - #Invoke the Orb of Detection (controlled)
Losing:
  - Wear a mummy wrapping (controlled)

Jumping
~~~~~~~
Message: none
Effect: You can jump at will (using #jump).
Obtaining:
  - Wear boots of jumping (controlled)
  - Knights begin with jumping (appropriately enough, only in an L-shape)

Levitation
~~~~~~~~~~
Message: "You float into the air."
Effect: You float above the ground, avoiding any pressure-sensitive traps
  below. You cannot go down stairs or interact in any way with items on the
  ground below.
Obtaining:
  - Wear boots of levitation (controlled; they tend to be cursed)
  - Wear a ring of levitation (controlled)
  - Eat a ring of levitation (permanent; WARNING: This is a bad thing)
  - Quaff a potion of levitation (temporary)
  - #Invoke the Heart of Ahriman (controlled)
Note that the related intrisic "You can fly" is not included in this file
because there is no way to obtain it, other than polymorphing into a flying
monster. Flight gives all the benefits of levitation with none of the
drawbacks.

Lycanthropy
~~~~~~~~~~~
Message: "You feel feverish."
Effect: Occassionally, you will turn into a werecreature of the same type
  that bit you (wererat, werejackal, or werewolf). Definately a bad thing,
  except that you can create pets with the #monster meta-command. See the
  file "trouble" for a description of how to cure lycanthropy.
Obtaining:
  - Get bitten by a wererat, werejackal, or werewolf (permanent)
  - Eat a wererat, werejackal, or werewolf (permanent)
Losing:
  - Eat a sprig of wolfsbane (permanent)
  - Pray, if your prayer timeout has passed and your god is happy with you
    (permanent)

Magic Resistance
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Message: none
Effect: Causes magic missiles to bounce harmlessly away. Anti-magic fields,
  teleportation traps, and polymorph traps have no effect.
Obtaining:
  - Wear a cloak of magic protection (controlled)
  - Wear gray dragon scale mail (controlled)
  - Carry the Orb of Detection, the Sceptre of Might, the Magic Mirror of
    Merlin, the Platinum Yendorian Express Card, or the Eye of Aethiopica
    (controlled)

Poison Resistance
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Message: "You feel healthy!"
Effect: Eating poisonous corpses is safe. Poison attacks (e.g. killer bee
  stings) do not do extra damage or kill you outright. Poisoned darts and
  arrows do not do extra damage or kill you outright. Potions of sickness do
  not poison you. Poison resistance DOES NOT protect you from become deathly
  sick through food poisoning.
Obtaining:
  - Eat a poisonous corpse (permanent; includes a vast array of monsters
    including most insects, all kobolds, and many others. Dangerous, though.)
  - Eat unicorn corpses, cave spiders, garter snakes, gelatinous cubes, or
    a few others which are NOT poisonous, but will confer poison resistance
    (permanent)
  - Wear a ring of poison resistance (controlled)
  - Eat a ring of poison resistance (permanent)
  - Wear an amulet of versus poison (controlled)
  - Wear green dragon scale mail (controlled)
  - Eat green dragon meat (permanent)
  - Become the Hand of Elbereth/Envoy of Balance/Glory of Arioch (permanent)
  - Barbarians and Healers begin with poison resistance
  - Tourists gain poison resistance at level 20

Polymorph
~~~~~~~~~
Message: none
Effect: You will occassionally polymorph into something else. If you have
  polymorph control, you get to choose what. Polymorphing is always
  temporary.
Obtaining:
  - Wear a ring of polymorph (controlled)
  - Eat a ring of polymorph (permanent)
Note that you can also polymorph (without gaining the intrinsic) by zapping
  yourself with a wand of polymorph, quaffing from a sink (sometimes),
  stepping on a polymorph trap, or eating a chameleon corpse. Eating a mimic
  corpse will polymorph you temporarily into a pile of gold.

Polymorph Control
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Message: none
Effect: You get to choose what monster to become when polymorphed
Obtaining:
  - Wear a ring of polymorph control (controlled)
  - Eat a ring of polymorph control (permanent)

Protection
~~~~~~~~~~
Message: "Thy devotion has been rewarded." (when donating)
Effect: Lowers your armor class by the amount of protection (0-20).
Obtaining:
  - Wear a ring of protection (controlled)
  - Eat a ring of protection (permanent)
  - Wear a cloak of protection (controlled)
  - Pray (sometimes; permanent)
  - Donate to priests in temples (between 400 and 600 times your level;
    permanent)
Losing:
  - Make your god angry with you (permanent)

Reflection
~~~~~~~~~~
Message: none
Effect: "Beamed" attacks and lightning will bounce harmlessly back the way
  they came.
Obtaining:
  - Wear a shield of reflection (controlled)
  - Wear an amulet of reflection (controlled)

Regeneration
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Message: none
Effect: Your hit points regenerate at a very fast rate. You also need to eat 
  more often.
Obtaining:
  - Wear a ring of regeneration (controlled)
  - Eat a ring of regeneration (permanent; a bad idea due to the increased
    food consumption)
  - Carry The Palantir of Westernesse or the Staff of Aesculapius (controlled:
    a good thing as it does *not* increase your consumption of food.)

Searching
~~~~~~~~~
Message: "You feel perceptive!"
Effect: Your character will automatically search for secret doors, passages,
  traps, monsters posing as statues, etc. every turn.
Obtaining:
  - Wear a ring of searching (controlled)
  - Eat a ring of searching (permanent)
  - Wield Excalibur (controlled)
  - Elves begin with searching
  - Archeologists, Rogues, and Tourists gain searching at level 10

See invisible
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Message: varies
Effect: Invisible monsters are no longer invisible to you.
Obtaining:
  - Quaff a potion of see invisible (temporary)
  - Quaff a blessed potion of see invisible (permanent)
  - Quaff from a fountain (sometimes; permanent; "You see an image of
    someone stalking you.")
  - Quaff from a sink (temporary; infintessmally small chance)
  - Sit on a throne (sometimes; permament; "Your vision clears.")
  - Eat a ring of see invisible (permament)
  - Wear a ring of see invisible (controlled)
  - Eat a stalker corpse while invisible (permanent; always works)
  - Become the Hand of Elbereth/Envoy of Balance/Glory of Arioch (permanent)
  - Elves begin with see invisible

Shock resistance
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Message: "You health currently feels amplified!"
Effect: Lighting and electrical attacks do not harm you.
Obtaining:
  - Eat monsters which attack with electricity, such as blue dragons
    (permanent)
  - Eat gelatinous cubes or black puddings (permanent)
  - Wear a ring of shock resistance (controlled)
  - Eat a ring of shock resistance (permanent)
  - Wear blue dragon scale mail (controlled)

Sleep resistance
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Message: "You feel wide awake."
Effect: Sleep attacks (e.g. from homunculi or wands of sleep) and sleeping
  gas traps do not affect you.
Obtaining:
  - Eat elves (permanent)
  - Eat some acidic monsters such as acid blobs and gelatinous cubes
    (permanent)
  - Eat orange dragons (permanent)
  - Eat homunculi (permanent)
  - Wear orange dragon scale mail (controlled)
  - Elves begin with sleep resistance

Speed
~~~~~
Note that speed can be stolen by shades and can be removed by quantum
mechanics. You can also lose intrinsic speed by eating quantum mechanics 
when already fast.

Message: "You feel yourself speed up [a bit more]."
Effect: You become faster in movement and attacks. There are two levels of
  speed: fast and very fast. Very fast can be obtained only when wearing
  speed boots (controlled) or drinking a potion (temporary). 
Obtaining:
  - Wear speed boots (controlled - makes you Very Fast)
  - Zap yourself with a wand of speed monster (permanent)
  - Quaff a potion of speed (temporary - makes you Very Fast)
  - Quaff from a sink (temporary; infintessmally small chance of getting 
    the speed potion as a random potion)
  - Get hit by a Quantum Mechanic while not yet fast (sometimes; permanent;
    "Your velocity seems very uncertain.")
  - Eat a Quantum Mechanic while not yet fast (always; permanent; "Your
    velocity seems very uncertain.")
  - Pray to your god when he is pleased (occasionally)
  - Archeologists, Elves, and Samurai begin with speed
  - Barbarians, Cavemen, Knights, and Valkyries gain speed at level 7
Losing: 
  - being hit by a skeleton, shade or gremlin (chance)
  - starting to turn to stone
  - eating a quantum mechanic when you have intrinsic speed
  - sometimes, being hit by a quantum mechanic when you have intrinsic speed
  - being zapped by a wand of slow monster
  - carrying too much also makes you slower, but this works differently to being 
    zapped with a wand of slow monster (not by levels of speed but by making you 
    miss turns.)

Stealth
~~~~~~~
Message: "You walk very quietly."
Effect: Other monsters (including your pet) may not notice you.
Obtaining:
  - Wear elven boots (controlled)
  - Wear a ring of stealth (controlled)
  - Eat a ring of stealth (permanent)
  - Carry the Heart of Ahriman (Barbarian quest artifact; controlled)
  - Archeologists, rogues, and valkyries begin with stealth
  - Barbarians and Samurai gain stealth at level 15

Telepathy
~~~~~~~~~
Note that telepathy will be lost if you kill a peaceful monster of your same
race (elves for elves, humans otherwise).

Message: "You feel a strange mental acuity."
Effect: When blind, the location of all monsters on the level with brains are
  revealed.
Obtaining:
   - Eat a floating eye corpse (permanent; always works)
   - Eat a mind flayer corpse (permanent)
   - Become the Hand of Elbereth/Envoy of Balance/Arioch's Glory (always;
     permanent)
   - Pray (sometimes; permanent)

Teleport
~~~~~~~~
Message: "You feel jumpy."
Effect: If you don't also have teleport control, you will occassionally
  teleport to a random location on the level. If you have teleport control,
  you get to choose where.
Obtaining:
  - Wear a ring of teleportation (controlled)
  - Eat a ring of teleportation (permanent)
  - Eat most (but not all) teleporting monster: leprechauns, all nymphs,
    tengus, the Wizard of Yendor (permanent)

Teleport Control
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Message: "You feel in control of yourself."
Effect: If you also have teleport or know the teleport away spell, you can
  choose where to teleport to.
Obtaining:
  - Wear a ring of teleport control (controlled)
  - Eat a ring of teleport control (permanent)
  - Eat tengus or the Wizard of Yendor (permanent; in the latter case it's
    cannibalism if you're not an elf)
  - Carry the Master Key of Thievery (controlled)
  - Wizards gain teleport control at level 17

Turning to stone
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Message: "You are slowing down.", "Your limbs are stiffening."
Effect: Obvious. You turn to stone and die in 2 moves. Definitely a bad
  thing. Eat a lizard corpse or acidic corpse (acid blob, pudding, green mold
  etc.) or pray if your prayer timeout has elapsed and your god is happy with
  you. Or polymorph into a stone golem, acidic monster or cockatrice.
Obtaining:
  - Tangle with a cockatrice (sometimes; permanent until death)
  - Eat a cockatrice egg (permanent until death)
Note: eating a cockatrice corpse, Medusa's corpse, gazing on Medusa, and
  touching a cockatrice with ungloved hands cause stoning to be immediate, 
  rather than happening over a couple of turns.

Warning
~~~~~~~
Message: "You feel sensitive."
Effect: Your character will occassionally feel aprehensive as he/she senses
  a flash of colored light. The darker the color, the more dangerous the
  monsters on the level are.
Obtaining:
  - Wear a ring of warning (controlled)
  - Eat a ring of warning (permanent)
  - Wield Sting (controlled)
  - Carry the Master Key of Thievery or the Orb of Fate (controlled)
  - Cavemen, Healers, Priests, and Wizards gain warning at level 15

Part 3: Losing Intrinsics
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Someone asked how he could get rid of an intrinsic that he didn't
really want. In his most recent case he ate a leprechaun and wanted to
get rid of the teleportitis. Worse was - in his humble opinion - the
time he or drank a blessed (sic!) potion of invisibility and became
permanently invisible, which was great until he wanted something from a
shop...

Well, there is only one way to get rid of most intrinsics:  have a
gremlin hit you (this will only work at night: 21:00 - 06:00). Don't
expect to lose the one you WANT to get rid of the first time, though.
You'll probably lose some other intrinsics as well (I wouldn't mind
losing aggravate monster, but this is - unfortunately - not possible:
see below).

Intrinsic lost		Message
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
fire resistance		You feel warmer.
teleportation		You feel less jumpy.
poison resistance	You feel a little sick!
telepathy		Your senses fail!
cold resistance		You feel cooler.
invisibility		You feel paranoid.
see invisible		You thought you saw something!
speed			You feel slower.
stealth			You feel clumsy.
protection		You feel vulnerable.

Note that the chance of losing an intrinsic is pretty slim, unless you
are facing hundreds of gremlins at the same time, which is possible if
there is a lot of water nearby. Note also that some intrinsics cannot be 
lost to a gremlin attack, and most of these are bad ones - such as 
aggravate monster, lycanthropy, and so on. (The two examples above - 
of teleportitis and unwanted invisibility - are more easily countered
by getting teleport control and making yourself visible by wearing a 
mummy wrapping.)

First, a gremlin gets four attacks, only the last of which can remove
an intrinsic. Then, this last attack must hit you. If it hits, you have
only a one-in-ten chance that the game will try to make you lose an
intrinsic. The game then randomly chooses one from the above list, and
if you have that intrinsic, you lose it. Note that the other three
attacks inflict damage, so watch your hit points as well as your
intrinsics.

As far as I know, this is the only way to lose an annoying intrinsic.
There are some other intrinsics that can be lost, but you wouldn't want
to lose these (speed can be lost to shades or by eating quantum
mechanics, protection and telepathy if you anger your god, and there
may be more...)
